Water Park

A great way to play in the heat is head out to a splash park and calgary has plenty! We decided to pack a lunch and meet Daddy downtown and then stay and play at the Eau Claire water park, one of many Calgary Spray Parks. Having lunch was great as Grady was not so keen on all the kids and the water when we arrived but once he had time to settle as he ate his lunch he was raring to go! It was really easy to take the C-Train down and save on parking!


Grady riding the dinosaur while taking a break from the water.

Getting a turn to shoot one of the 3 water sprayers. I liked that although they spun around 360 degrees they turn off when facing the grass so unsuspecting parents and children don't get sprayed. But they also challenge the little kids to figure out why it stopped spraying!

Grady liked the spraying so much he went around asking other kids to spray him!

Playing in the deeper side of the pool, which was about knee height for Grady.

I really enjoyed our afternoon here and it was nice to be able to find a spot on the grass in the sun but where I could still see Grady in any part of the park or playground. It was also not too busy I assume because all the other splash parks have free parking.

Good Luck to Good Friends

Recently our good family friends the Martin Family picked up and moved off to Vancouver for a great career opportunity. We couldn't just let them go without making sure they knew how much we valued their 8+ years of friendship (and many more to come). So we borrowed their Souvla and ordered a whole pig to throw a Stampede Style Goodbye Party.

I got this cake idea from a fellow blogger (more so deserving of the "blogger" title as she is much more on top of postings) who got it from another blogger. Their websites are: http://www.merrywithchildren.com/ and http://www.familyfoodfitnessandfun.com/ . Its called a rainbow cake. I couldn't find disposable round pans (and I didn't want to have to go to another dollar store) so I went with squares.

All stacked up and ready to ice. I am glad I make the cake the night before instead of waiting until the day of as I had planned. With going to the premier of Winnie the Pooh I would have been pressed for time with all the other prep!

Lee having a well earned beer and supervising the first rotations of the pig to make sure it well balanced and will cook properly.

The PIG! I ordered it from the Better Butcher just up the road from us which made pick up easy. A "small" pig is $225 as is 50lbs or less. We got the biggest small pig we could to ensure we would have enough to eat for everyone. Since I had to order the pig well before all the RSVPs were in it was a gamble to make sure we would have enough but not too much! It was a pretty good estimate as we only had about 5lbs of meat leftover which I ground up with my Kitchenaid stand mixer to freeze for later use.

I made up my own recipe as I could find very little info on whole hog cooking besides how to choose a pig or make your own roaster. I mixed Greek Oregano, Bold & Spicy Mustard, Sea Salt, Ground Pepper and Garlic as a rub for the cavity. Then stuffed it with apple and onion wedges and whole garlic bulbs cut in half. Then the gus sewed it shut with some wires and started it cooking. We also used a baste as it keeps the skin from burning but not a lot of the flavour penetrate to the meat, for it I mixed Olive Oil, Garlic, Sea Salt & Pepper, Oregano (I didn't have time to get more Greek) and lemon or apple juice.

The pig was ready after about 5.5 hours of cooking, they say to estimate 1 hr per 10lbs. Looking so good it was hard to get people to come inside and eat the rest of the food because they were enjoying eating it right off the spit!

(L to R) Christine, Voula, Erin and Lindsay patiently waiting for supper.

Frankie and Steve in their matching shirts, although I'm sure Steve would like you to know that he only paid $5 for his!

Francis in his stampede gear doing some BBQing of his own.

The cake, all iced and ready to go.

Each color had a different fresh fruit flavour with some food coloring to brighten the colors. It was very challenging to cut the cake and still have it look pretty on the plates.

And as many of our parties end...Here are Brian and Tyler playing heads up poker at 1am. From the wad of cash on the counter I think Brian was the big winner this time.

Good Luck Martin Family!

Enjoy Grade One Helen!

Meet lots of new friends Billy!

We can't wait for your website Voula (http://www.familyfunvancouver.com/)!

Good Luck in the new job Lee!

You guys are really going to enjoy it out there and we hope to see you each time you come home and I'm sure we'll make at least one trip out there to see you!

Love,

The Brooks' Family

Calgary Stampede Parade 2011

Given that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would be driving the parade route I decided it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and also a great excuse to go see the Stampede Parade. Lucky for me and Grady Grandma Gloria got up early and got us some seats so we could get up less early and meet her. Our day started with a 6am wake-up so we could ride the C-train to downtown with Daddy. Considering that is at least 2hrs before a normal wake-up time for Grady he did amazing! He sat for the whole parade which didn't finish by us until about noon!

Police escort prior to HRHs

HRH Duchess of Cambridge. They were motoring pretty fast and like everyone else we were disappointed that they were not at least in a convertable. I think though from what I understand from people at the start of their route they left about 10-15min late so that would explain the rush as the Parade was starting at 8:55 at the opposite end of the route. So thank security for creating the delay!

There you go, I managed to get most of her face and William's hand.

Stampede Band

Rik Hansen

Stampede Float

RCMP

Guy riding an Ox, pretty cool

Our Troops who got a standing ovation the whole parade route.

Had to get a pic of the SNC Lavalin entry as that is where Brian works.

SNC Lavalin partnered with a local school for the Science at the Stampede Float.

Calgary Flames

Westjet, the wind came up strong just after they crossed the light and this pan nearly took flight!

Shriners mini planes. One of the poor shiners blew a tire and had to push his car to the side of the road!

We moved up to curbside seats when some people left.

Even the street cleaners were dressed up! We saw a horse, a cow and an ox.

I took this one to tease Brian that I didn't know he was in the parade...get it? An a**! I joke! He is a fabulous husband and father.
Overall we enjoyed the parade and will have to do it again in a few years. Maybe next time cousin Isabel can join us.

Don't Parent While Tired

You know I recently went to NKOTBSB with some girlfriends, which meant leaving Grady at home under the supervision of Daddy. I got a text while at the stampede grounds around 5:15pm letting me know that Grady had fallen asleep and asking if he should wake him. I left it up to Brian. I heard no more so figured it all worked out fine....

But...

When I got home at 12:15am I was greeted by a very disoriented Brian who said something to the effect of "Where's Grady?" UH OH! I assumed he was fast asleep in his room but Brian proceeded to tell me how he had let Grady stay asleep and had fallen asleep himself around 8pm. Sometime around 9pm Brian heard Grady stirring but thought he would go back to sleep on his own. In true Daddy Deafness (does anyone else's husband suffer from this?) he heard no more a fell back in to a deep sleep. Well I went upstairs to investigate and this is what I found.

Clearly Grady woke up, changed his clothes and diaper at least 3 or 4 times, tried to put on PJs...

Read several books and played with toys...


And put himself back to sleep! Who knows how long he was up and thank goodness he didn't leave his bedroom!

This is what I found in his bed:
5 Books
4 Trucks
1 Touque
1 Calculator...

The next morning I was able to deduce that Grady must have pooped during his "nap" and got up to change himself, he did a pretty good job too and the only way I figured it out was the little bit of skid marks on the carpet and the underwear he tried to put on, Bless Him! When I asked him if he woke up last night and Daddy was asleep his said "Yes" and I aske dwhat he did, he said "I play so quiet, Daddy be very happy" What a grown up little boy!

So just like one shouldn't drive while tired, clearly you also shouldn't parent! Lucky for us nothing bad happened. But I sure got a greast laugh at Brian's expense :D

NKOTBSB

I have my friend Mandy to thank for this fabulous night out at the Stampede, and thankfully in the end I was able to find some great girlfriends to join me! Mandy texted me late Tuesday morning to ask if I would like 4 club seats to New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. How could I say no? What I didn't think is that I would have such a hard time finding people to go, I know it was short notice and all but the excuses ranged from "I wasn't really that into those bands" to "Not if your paid me" or "I'd rather pour salt in my eyes"! Really? I was just thinking I did love them as a girl and what a great excuse for a night out!

In any case I found 3 lucky ladies to accompany me. So thanks Voula, Melissa and Alli. Your screams of glee and avoices singing along with mine only added to the evening!

Here's Alli showing how excited she is to see her hearthrob Nick Carter. You can see Voula and Melissa in the background truly enthused with the opening act (I tease! They were very excited to be there but being the website mavens they are (www.familyfuncalgary.com) they have trouble disconnecting from their smart phones)

Here is Matthew Morrison aka Mr. Schuster from Glee. We only caught a few of his songs as we were too busy stuffing our faces on the Stampede midway with Bacon on a Stick, Beef on a Bun, Those Little Donuts, Corndogs, Deep Fried Oreos and Bloomin Onion. Now before you start to scoff that was the COMBINED menue for the 4 of us we didn't each have a full portion of every item!

In any case Matt was very entertaining and had I known who the opening act was I might have pushed more to get there in time. He was ridiculously sweaty though, so I would recommend his stage crew add a few (or 10) towels to their stage set up!

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK" That what you heard when these dudes appeared! We nearly missed their entrance as we thought we would have enough time between opening and headline act to grab a cocktail in the Avison Young Club. But nope we no sooner ordered our drinks and went to sit that the screams began so we rushed back to our seats. Whew! We didn't miss anything important though :D

Who doesn't need a stage that lifts? This was by far one on the best stages I have ever seen in terms of a groups ability to connect with the crowd, it ran nearly the entire length of the Saddledome floor! So we got a great view!

BSB

NKOTB

The only man on earth with a sparkly Public Enemy shirt. And also the oldest man on stage and the only one to remove his shirt much to the delight of the ladies present. I wasn't a Donny girl in my youth but his has aged well!

NKOTB's Joey crooning to the crowd in his cowboy hat. These guys really know how to entertain the women!

Alli and Voula

More crooning from Joey

BSB's Nick not to be outdone by the previous cowboy hatted gentlemen. Gotta love a man in a cowboy hat.

Oh yeah!

Me and Alli

See that blonde girl in the foreground? She was the row in front of us just to give you an idea of how close Jordan got! I think my heart stopped and I nearly forgot I was holding a camera and could get a shot!

Melissa and Voula still enjoying (tweeting) the show. LOL!

And here's where Alli's heart stopped when Nick came down the aisle 10 seats away from us.

Here I was trying to capture both groups on the raised up stages. BSB on the left in Orlando Jerseys and NKOTB on the right in Celtics.

What a show! Thanks again Mandy for the tickets. As silly as it seemed to go to a show like this as a 31yr old mom and not a pre-teen girl, they really did put on one of the most entertaining concerts I have ever been to!